beginning with the Sung Dynasty (from A.D. 960 to
1333) and lasting to our own time, was ushered in by a period of intense
mental energy. Strange to say (and most interesting is the fact to
Americans of this generation), the immediate occasion of the recension
and expansion of the old Confucianism was a Populist movement.[4] During
the Tang era of national prosperity, Chinese socialists questioned the
foundations of society and of government, and there grew up a new school
of interpreters as well as of politicians. In the tenth century the
contest between the old Confucianism and the new notions, broke out with
a violence that threatened anarchy to the whole empire.

One set of politicians, led by Wang (1021-1086), urged an extension of
administrative functions, including agricultural loans, while the
brothers Cheng (1032-1085, 1033-1107) reaffirmed, with fresh
intellectual power, the old orthodoxy.

The school of writers and party agitators, led by Szma Kwaug
(1009-1086)[5] the historian, contended that the ancient principles of
the sages should be put in force. Others, the Populists of that age and
land, demanded the entire overthrow of existing institutions.

In the bitter contest which ensued, the Radicals and Reformers
temporarily won the day and held power. For a decade the experiment of
innovation was tried. Men turned things social and political upside down
to see how they looked in that position. So these stood or oscillated
for thirteen years, when the people demanded the old order again. The
Conservatives rose to power. There was no civil war, but the Radicals
were banished beyond the frontier, and the country returned to normal
government.

This controversy raised a landmark in the intellectual history of
China.[6] The thoughts of men were turned toward deep and acute inquiry
into the nature and use of things in general. This thinking resulted in
a literature which to-day is the basis of the opinions of the educated
men in all Chinese Asia. Instead of a sapling we now have a mighty tree.
The chief of the Chinese writers, the Calvin of Asiatic orthodoxy, who
may be said to have wrought Confucianism into a developed philosophy,
and who may be called the greatest teacher of the mind, of modern China,
Korea and Japan, is Chu Hi, who reverently adopted the criticisms on the
Chinese classics of the brothers Cheng.[7] It is evident that in Chu
Hi's system, we have a body of thought which may be called the result